This publication is one of the most beautiful illustrated books of modern times. It is truly an icon of the 20th century. Tériade wanted to make it “a monument of the modern edition” and Henri Matisse acts as both an author and an illustrator.
"Jazz, which was published in 1947, is a book which marks a turning point in Matisse’s career and in the art of our century. Tériade had guessed the great potential of Matisse new ‘cut-out’ technique, especially after he finished his project of the front cover of issue eight of Verve magazine. It was at this time that Tériade asked him to create an entire book of paper collages, which Matisse refused to do. But two years later, he asked Tériade to come to his Nice apartment at the Hotel Régina, to show him two plates and a project for the front cover of the thirteenth issue. Matisse wrote: "Drawing with scissors. Cutting directly into colour reminds me of sculptor’s carving into stone. This book was made with this in mind".
The making of the 20 jazz cut-out plates took place from 1943 till 1944 while the text was handwritten in 1946. During this time, Tériade tried to find a way of reproducing the same exact colours from the originals. This proved to be very difficult; lithography, among other methods were attempted, but in vain. Finally they decided to use the pochoir technique ‘from Henri Matisse’s collages and cut-outs’ by using the same colours (gouache paint Linel) the artist had used” (Casimiro Di Crescenzo, in Tériade éditeur, centenaire).
